The Goblin King
by Lemurlazerbeem
Summary: The Goblin King has waited for the time when Sarah would be grown enough to understand what it is that he is offering…
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Labyrinth or this poem.

**The Goblin King**

From the stories of Illiodd.

Ring! Ding! The Goblin King.

Prologue

Greta met a goblin in the cold, dark night.  
Greta met a goblin and got quite a fright.  
He crept to the hedgerow, his eyes aglow.  
He grinned a grim grin. He crouched down low.  
No one heard a sound. No one was around  
when Greta met a goblin.

Part I

In a village far below  
cold mountains black where goblins grow,  
ring! Ding! A changeling sings, blows low.  
Each eerie note trickles slick as silver from his throat.  
Ring! Ding! A changeling sings.

Ring! for the King, his father mild.  
Ding! For the Queen, his mother wild;  
the fair Fairy Queen.  
On the village green the two once met.  
Each one loves the other yet,  
but love is found an offensive, reprehensive thing  
between a Fairy Queen and Human King.  
Ring! Ding! A changeling sings.

His fairy mother, though fierce and wild,  
could not for love or luck protect a changling child.  
So left him for his father in the wood, all alone.  
Throughout the wood sorrowful tones,  
ring! Ding! A changeling sings.  
So, dripping low, the echoes flow  
throughout the village far below.

It is the 9th year of the Fairy-Human Wars.  
Goblins peep in fairy windows. They creep in fairy doors.  
They spy with keen eyes for the human king.

The chief goblin goes hobbling down the lane.  
He's feeling quite slighted and unrestrained  
over leaving a meeting with the Human King  
unfulfilled! Unrewarded! Unrecognized!  
He has eyes full of harm. He has a basket on his arm.  
It's just the right size for the changeling who cries.  
Ring! Ding! The basket swings.

The goblin, quite wicked, slips through the thicket.  
(The thicket filled still with a ghostly glow of a changeling!)  
The goblin creeps, stoops low. Ring! Ding! A changeling sings.

So, ring! Ding! Rides the King,  
fast after the wail, fast falling pale;  
for every baby by goblins snatched  
is by goblins hatched  
into a goggle-eyed goblin, green and pale  
with a scaley tail!

The king's very afraid for a changeling re-made  
would hatch full grown with a mind of his own  
to conquer the land. (Which is just what was planned.)  
Ring! Ding! A changeling sings.

Quickly the King discovers he cannot recover  
child or goblin. He sends word to the mother.  
The fairy Fairy Queen  
dies with a scream on the village green.

So ring! Ding! Dies father king.  
He swings upon a branch tangled and low,  
at the end of a rope all a goblin glow.  
He swings. Ring! Ding!

Part II

Back in the mountains cold and black, the changeling is hatched.  
He calls in dissonant chords full of mournful rings  
as ding! In a ring the goblins sing, "Ring! Ding! The Goblin King!"

He retains every scary part of fairy.  
He keeps each unkind way of mankind.  
His eyes, cold and silver, never close.  
He has skin like the moon and a long, straight nose.  
He has fire and spiders inside of his hands.  
They help him to weave unspeakable plans.  
His voice is a fugue full of sorrowful notes.  
They float in dim rings. Ding! The Goblin King.

The goggle-eyed goblins gather 'round.  
They scuffle and scrape without making a sound.  
They drape him in glimmering, shimmering mail  
made of dragon's scales and fairies' tails.  
Ring! Ding! The Goblin King.

He takes delight in fright and pain,  
so to institute his quite shocking reign,  
throughout the village far below,  
ring! Ding! The King does go.  
He rides a toad with great, horned wings.  
Ring! Ding! The Goblin King.

The toad's wings flap. It's sharp tongue laps  
every infant in town from it's warm, safe nap.  
The snatched are then hatched into green and pale  
goggle-eyed goblins with scaly tails.

Everything goes according to plan.  
Ring! Ding! The King conquers the land.  
He rules with a dark and fearsome hand.  
Ring! Ding! The Goblin King.

Part III

Somehow, the kingdom, despite it's great size  
finds the King dissatisfied.  
He stares and declares, "I must have a bride!  
Take a net, quick, and get Greta for my side!  
She like a star follows cool and slow  
my frightful might from the village below.  
She'll be found in the place the ghostly glow  
of a changeling fills still." Slow go  
the tread of Greta far below.

Greta by a goblin is quickly met,  
caught up in his net and set before the King.  
Her reaction to his attraction is a crass, "Whatever!  
You think you're clever?"

Before the king can form a reply  
she snatches his eyes.  
She laughs as she juggles the small, shiny things.  
Then she cries out as a flower springs from each socket.  
Still mad, she plucks them for her pocket.  
With a ding they ring, like a changeling sings.  
Ring! Ding! The Goblin King.

The sound makes Greta feel a bit sad.  
It's so sweet, she thinks, "Perhaps he's not all bad."  
So, over the petals, a tiny tear springs.  
It drops down with a ding like a changeling sings.

Soon fast and faster she feels her tears flow.  
ever larger she watches them grow  
till one tear's as tall as the mountains cold and black.  
It falls over the land with a smash! Smack! Crack!

As it splatters it shatters like a great glass plate.  
The tear of every goblin makes  
a half-human, half-fairy lady or lord.  
So ending the Human-Fairy War.  
Changelings are now the main things around.

Then a sound - a note floats soft and slow  
throughout the village far below.  
Ring! Ding! A Changeling King sings!

He's retained every very nice part of fairy.  
Now has only kind ways of mankind.  
His eyes are still silver, but warm and they close.  
He has skin like the moon and a long, straight nose.  
He has fire and spiders inside of his hands.  
They help him to weave unbelievable plans.  
Soft and kind notes float to his throat from the back of his mind.  
Low they echo, they fall slow  
throughout the village far below.  
Ring! Ding! A Changeling sings.

Ring! A king like his father, mild.  
Ding! A queen like his mother, wild.  
On the village green the two often are seen  
where his mother and father met.  
Each loves the other yet.

* * *

I was researching anything to do with the Goblin King, if he was in mythology, or was simply made up, and I can upon this poem. After reading it several times I got the idea for a story from it. So using this poem and the Labyrinth movie and manga books, I hope that the story created will be a good one.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Labyrinth.

Story Outline: The Goblin King has waited for the time when Sarah would be grown enough to understand what it is that he is offering…

The Goblin King

By LemurBuddy

Chapter One

_I saw my baby, dying in a pasture so green…_

_There was nothing we could do…_

_The baby's time had come…_

_To take that crown and grew…_

_Nobody knew…_

During the Human-Fairy wars some centuries ago, a human King and a fairy Queen fell in love and had a child together. Despite the war, and the fact that they were enemies, they continued to see each other in secret, right up until the birth of the child. They both knew, that the child would be in danger from both sides, so the Fairy Queen decided to hide the child away herself in her realm, where he would grow happily until he was able to look after himself.

They both agreed, and the fairy Queen took him away.

That was the last time that the King and Queen were able to meet. The war grew fiercer, allowing none to leave to safety of their homes without fear of death. The King was worried, fearful over the fate of his child, but there was nothing he could do, it was out of his hands.

In the Fairy realm, the fairy Queen was having problems of her own. Word had somehow gotten out about the birth of the changeling child, and human-haters quickly plotted the death of the child.

Weary, hurt and tired, the Queen sent the child to the human King in hopes that he would be able to protect him better.

But the child never arrived.

The chief of the Goblins had feelings of hatred towards the human King for his dismissal of the chief's efforts in the war. Having heard of the child in his spying, he waited for the opportunity to snatch the child away, and change it into a goblin. He knew that the fairy Queen would send the child to the human King as soon as it got ruff, so when he felt the transport spell take hold, he used goblin magic to take the baby, and send him somewhere that he could be collected.

But these actions didn't go unnoticed by the human King.

The love of a fairy can be a powerful thing and she had given him his own magic to protect him. He felt the arrival of the child and the goblins interference, and hurried to the woods in which he had sensed the boy.

But by the time that he had arrived, the child was gone.

The King grieved for his lost son and immediately sent word to the fairy Queen of what happened.

But by that time, the fairy Queen had died, killed by the human-haters who despised the Queen who mated with the human King. Her cousin, a proper fairy with no love for humans ascended the throne. A worse thing could not have happened, for before, the old Queen had kept the war for total bloodshed, but now, there was no hope. And so, many thousands continued to die.

The message was received by the wrong Queen, and it was she who arrived in disguise to the weakened King in the woods. Heart-broken and alone, it didn't take much to end the human King.

Thinking she had won, the new fairy Queen returned to the palace to crown herself ruler over all.

But a new power soon arose. High in the mountains, the babe had been placed, waiting for the transformation from changeling to goblin child. Scheming and wicked, the goblins waited until the changeling prince would emerge a fully grown goblin.

A full day had passed and the time had come to view upon the new addition. What was viewed sent them into confusion for this goblin was extremely tall, and had the appearance of a human and fey.

It was then deducted that this goblin would be their King, and dressed him in dragon armour and dark leather. True to his cause, the newly formed king, snatched unwanted babies from their beds, they too, were changed into new goblins.

A Goblin King was born.

* * *

It was a thousand years later, after the human and fey worlds had separated, that a young girl with the belief of the magical world, wished her baby bother into the clutches of the fearful Goblin King. In a desperate attempt to undo her wrong, she travelled through the King's Labyrinth to reach the Castel Beyond The Goblin City were the babe was waiting. In the end she defeated the Labyrinth and won back the child, leaving a defeated Goblin King behind.

The girl, Sarah, was too young to understand why the Goblin King granted her wishes in the first place, and only thought of him as the villain. Unable to deny her anything, the King wore himself out, getting nothing in return.

Or so people thought.

The Labyrinth itself was created to keep the goblins safe from the humans searching for their lost babes, and to protect the Goblin King from the Queen of Moraine who did something unforgivable. Its intention wasn't to be used as a test to get the children back, merely to keep the people in and everyone else out.

For Sarah, the Goblin King would change anything.

Nothing is what it seems in the Labyrinth, and for its King, nothing can ring with more truth. The Kings reason for bringing Sarah into the Labyrinth was to keep her there. But upon meeting her that night, he understood that she was still too young, so he did all in his power to help her through without seeming to make it too easy. There wasn't one trap or danger that she wouldn't be able to get out of.

Sarah won, and the King waited.

* * *

During the five years after the run through the Labyrinth, Sarah worked to gain and strengthen ties between friends and family. If one thing had told her about her time in the Goblin Kingdom, it was that you needed friends to help you through the good and the bad. Where school was once a waste of her time, it soon improved once she opened up to others around her and gained companionship. She smoothed things over with her Father by sitting down and explaining that she wanted to be treated like a member of the family, and not the hired help. Once things was explained from her point of view, and was understood, her father realised that he hadn't paid hardly any attention to his only daughter, and it was no wonder things were so strained as they were.

Her relationship with her mother was a different thing all together. Ever since her return, the two have grown further apart, as Sarah began to see her in a new light. All her mother's faults that she had once ignored or written off had been brought into the light and Sarah learned that her mother was very selfish indeed. To leave ones family merely because one wasn't in the spotlight and famous, to treat ones daughter like an unwanted possession, was not the ideal role model mother. So, Sarah let her go, even though it hurt.

Toby grew from a screaming baby, to a screaming toddler. The little pain was very much like the Goblin King in appearance and attitude. If something didn't go his way; commence with the feet stopping, head banging and lung screaming. Despite being rather spoilt, Toby showed a high intelligence that astounded his parents and teachers, and was rather protective of his family. Once Sarah started going out with male friends, Toby would warn them to behave and if they didn't keep their hands to themselves, would find several things going wrong in their day. Flat tires, smashed mirrors, sense of something stalking them…

Hence Sarah was left alone from boys.

This, instead of annoying her, was rather amused by it.

Karen was another story. Sarah's perspective of Karen was in fact correct. Her step-mother viewed Sarah as the unwanted child from another woman, and merely hid these thoughts away from her husband. More often than not, Sarah was treated as the unpaid help, allowed to live in the house to do the cleaning and baby-sitting of her only child.

Sarah tried to change Karen's view point, but nothing she did worked.

By the end of the five years, Sarah was twenty with a job as an artist, living in her own apartment, and was never able to keep a stable boyfriend due to their own incompetence and her little brother running them off.

It was about this time that the Goblin King decided he had waited long enough.

"Sarah, Sarah, Sarah… You're so much more now than the girl who takes care of a screaming baby…"

* * *

And that's the end of the first chapter. Let me know what you think of it.

Thanks

LemurBuddy


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